They have ZERO personal time and ZERO personal life.
Last year I applied to MD and go rejected. Despite having volunteer and shadow experience, I told myself I would do more and set up some regular shadowing with some specialists. After my rejection, I used a friend connection to spend 2 full days of the week shadowing specialists (in ICU and thoracic surgery) for about 6 months. Since I also had a healthcare background it made it easy to give me access and such to basically attend alll rounds / education activities / surgeries that I wanted.
Prior to this long term experience I thought I had it all figured out and that medicine was my calling. I thought I knew about all the sacrifices MDs make, the long hours, the years of training. It's what I saw every day while working as a hospital assistant. I thought I could make a great doc and really take the time for my patients and care and change the way some doctors deliver care (which I thought was in some ways flawed and attributed to their lack of investment in "really getting to the root of the problem"). Little did I know that even some of those doctors who come across as jerks, really had very good intentions which were destroyed by the state of "medicine" today.
It took this longitudinal experience, which gave me access to the resident meetings, call room conversations, complaints which made me realize this job is actually not what it's made out to be. Many specialists are in it only for the money, and most of those with good intentions are so over worked and so tired and so miserable I actually had a few residents ask me why I ever wanted to go into field. During my 6 months 7/10 of the fellows I met was either still single/unmarried at the ages of 31-35 or already divorced. I recall at least 8-10 tell me they haven't seen their kid in the last weeks to months. Some moved away from the partner/kid to complete fellowship, others say they slept the last 7-1o nights at the hospital. Over half were overweight. I remember only 2-3 people who would pack a lunch (only because their spouse did the cooking and packing as they would tell me). With the rest of them, it was normal for us to show up for 7 am rounds. They hadn't had breakfast. We went down to the OR by 8am, they grabbed a stale donut from the OR lunch room and drank some drip coffee. First OR done at 11ish, we would write the note and they would tell me to take the chance to eat because they had to run up to the ward and check on the post-ops (make sure discharges were being done, notes were done, quick 2-3 min pop into every patient room with the same "things are going well, you're going home tomorrow, see you in follow-up clinic in 4 weeks, any questions? (half list to what to me sounded like legitimate family concerns), the nurse will give you all that info", run out pull out the chart scribble 1-2 lines "looking good, VSS, home tomorrow, follow-up clinic). Run back down to OR, talk to staff about next case, grab a couple of slices of pizza from the OR lunch room, prep next case. Next case done around 3-4pm, run up to ward again, check on morning OR patient on ward or in ICU, check on more complex long term patients. Get a bunch of important questions from the charge nurse on the ward, answer some, defer most to other specialists, complain about other specialists who haven't yet shown up to assess the patient or complain because you disagree with something the other service recommends. Get stopped by rehab staff who tells you a particular patient is not well enough to go home tomorrow. Go see patient and realize they look awful (something we missed in our 1 minute fly-in in the morning), now there's some medical thing we need to fill out for rehab. It's about 5:30pm, we go down to the cafeteria and grab some food, 6pm resident wants to send me home so he can finish notes. I usually decided to stay and read quietly because I wanted to see what the full day holds. 7:30pm we give our handover to the night shift. I'm packing myself up. Resident is staying behind to look over imaging and prep for tomorrow, tells me he'll go home at 9pm. I'm tired and hungry and feel louzy.
I arrive back next day 7am, he's already there and looking over imaging for our case.
During our day the pager is going off at least a dozen times, there are med students who come and go and ask questions, the staff surgeon is drilling the resident with questions during the cases.
As a competitive athlete in college, I remember long hours of training and school. I remember the emphasis placed on nutrition and sleep. Recovery days after competition. Meals prepared for the team after games. Yes, teams in colleges have lots of support. It blows my mind that someone can sustain themselves on a donut and pizza and pop and coffee and be tasked with vital decision making. I do recall errors made in notes that charge nurses would clarify with us. I do recall incidents in which we get flagged by other staff about a patient's complications or need for rehab, which we miss because we literally have 60-90 seconds to check on them. Some people around me think this is some kind of "martyrdom" and "doctor's are special". I completely disagree. I think these residents are over stressed and being used as cheap labour. It takes them so long to prep because they just slow down due to lack of nutrients and sleep. I don't think physiologically it is wise or sustainable to live like this. None of them have time for their own health, let alone fostering personal relationships. When we did have a few minutes in elevators or the cafeteria to just chat about life, they'd ask me how my long weekend was, I would say "oh I went camping with my nephews" and ask them back how their's was "oh I was here" or "had a bunch of reading". I honestly just felt sorry for them. I get it that it's a cool task to be responsible for "Fixing another person", for making them feel better, treating them. I think the way the system is set up is horrible, I think we're creating more sick people. I think more funding and more staffing and more work-life balance would be wiser.
Anyway, just wanted to share my experience. I'm so glad I will be going into DPT instead.
Now I know ofc now that one scoop of ice cream isn't a heart attack in a bowl; but I do know that a lifetime of bad habits decreases both quality and quantity of life. It seems then that doctors, more than any other profession, should be acutely aware of this. Thus begs the question, why are docs not all health nuts who have ideal bmi's and live to be 120? Is it just that "once you know" its too overwhelming to try and do everything right or is it something else?
